“Leading Ladies” by Marlee Matlin
Megan’s fourth-grade class is putting on their own original musical based on the book The Wizard of Oz, and Megan wants to be the star of the show and play Dorothy. Since she’s deaf, she will sign the songs for her audition.
Excerpt: “It doesn’t make sense to me…in the book, Dorothy is a girl who can hear and talk – and Toto is a little dog. So I’m sorry – but I just don’t see a Dorothy who’s deaf and talks with her hands and has a great big dog for Toto!”
However, a problem develops when Lizzie, her best friend from camp, transfers from her all-deaf school to Megan’s class – and signs the same two songs that Megan was going to do! Luckily, Megan has some other ideas up her sleeve…
Marlee and Doug Cooney follow Deaf Child Crossing and Nobody’s Perfect with this winning story that perfectly captures the humor, joys, and frustration of childhood friendships.
